A quiet blog that discusses LGBT issues, fiction, publishing, pop culture, and romance novels that may or may not be erotic romance.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

If You Were Gay in 1959: A Life Filled with Awesome Love

First, if you were gay in 1959 the odds are you were either sipping from the gin pail or in a very good mood. And if you were attracted to the same sex you were homosexual in clinical terms or any number of offensive pejoratives on the street.

On December 21st I have a new book coming out that's titled,"A Life Filled with Awesome Love," that's set in a remote western town, takes place during 1959, and has a story that revolves around a younger gay man trapped in impossible circumstances. So when I wrote "A Life Filled with Awesome Love," I took into consideration how difficult it must have been for young men who lived in small western towns to meet other men like themselves.

From what I've heard from older gay men I know, one of the biggest reasons why men who were attracted to other men moved to large cities was because they didn't dare come out of the closet in the small towns where they'd grown up. I just happened to set my story in a western town because it's a love story with two cowboys. But I could have set it anywhere in the US, from the deep south to the smallest town in Vermont. And from what I read in e-mails from many of my most discreet readers, things haven't changed all that much in those small towns.

Although the Internet has many issues to work out yet, one of the most freeing things about it is that it's opened up a whole new world for people in small towns who are gay and can't come out. I'm keeping this ambiguous because it's not just men; it's everyone in the isolated part LGBT community. And one of the things I find interesting about writing stories set in time periods like the 1950's is that there is a lot more hope for LGBT people when you compare then and now. And from what I gather, a lot of these people feel connected with the books and articles they read in digital format. So those of you who claim you love the smell of print books and you'll never give them up for e-books, take a moment to fully understand the impact e-books have had on gay people living lives where they just can't come out of the closet. My iPhone is something I use often and love, but I know someone who thinks of his iPod as his lifeline to the world.

In any event, I could ramble on about this forever. So here's the story description and an excerpt from "A Life Filled with Awesome Love." I don't think the excerpt I'm using now will be posted anywhere else. And I will post more when the book is released on December 21st. It's not actually a Christmas story, but there is a Christmas scene at the end.

Description:

It’s 1959 and young Travis Swanson discovers
that living in the same small Montana town where he grew up is suffocating. So
he devises a long term plan to get out of his situation and change his
circumstances, but there aren’t that many options for men like him and he has
to settle for the best thing that comes along. In his case, this comes in the
form of an advertisement at the back of a rodeo magazine. He answers an unusual
ad for a ranch hand job in Western Montana and finds himself communicating with
a cowboy named O’Dell Johnston. After a series of letters pass between them
Travis decides to take the job and move into O’Dell’s house. But he soon learns
that although some things are better than he expected and O’Dell is an
articulate lover, some things just don’t make sense. And Travis is not sure he
can live with a man who has so many secrets, won’t install central heat, and rarely
ever discusses his past…a past that includes the mysterious deaths of the two
young ranch hands before Travis.

Excerpt:

At times, Travis felt invisible. As he watched everyone else’s life move forward, his didn’t seem to move at all. At other times, he felt their eyes on him, as if they were scrutinizing him and wondering why he seemed so different from other young men his age. He didn’t look different; he didn’t sound different. To see him at a glance, no one would have looked twice. But he knew the people closest to him were wondering about him, and he wasn’t sure what to do about that.

Whenever Travis thought about the future, he felt uneasiness
deep in his gut that lasted for hours. He knew he had no future there.

His only viable option was to marry the girl who lived up
the road and settle down just like his mom and dad. He’d been dating her for
two years. Her name was Sally Mae Somerloon, and she worked at a local bank as
a teller: a pinched-face girl with wide hips and thick ankles. It would have
been the easiest thing for him to do. But he just couldn’t seem to get rid of
that uneasy feeling deep in his gut every time he thought about what his life
might be like twenty years from now.

So, he started looking for other ways out. Though his
options were limited, he figured if he could move away, at least he’d be able
to live his own life in peace and quiet without having to live up to anyone’s
expectations…in a place where no one knew him. He knew the things his family
wanted from him were never going to happen. He’d begun to reach a point where
going out with the insufferable Somerloon girl up the road caused his heart to
race in a way that left him both terrified and depressed. At times, he felt so
overwhelmed, he thought he might lose his mind. But most of all, he didn’t want
to wind up being that peculiar old bachelor in the small town where he’d lived
his entire life.

Then, one afternoon in late August of 1959, he went to the
dentist’s office and found an interesting advertisement in the classifieds of a
rodeo magazine he’d read millions of times in the past. He found the ad in the
help wanted section at the back of the magazine and read it aloud in a soft
whisper. “Strong, young man willing to work for room, board and a small salary
on a small ranch. No experience needed. Just easy to get along with and looking
for privacy.” The mailing address was in western Montana, far enough from where
he lived right now to start a new life on his own.

He glanced back and forth to make sure no one was watching,
and then he tore the ad out of the magazine and put it in his pocket. Later
that same night, he replied with a note and dropped it in the mailbox the next
morning on his way to work. He kept the note brief; he mentioned he had
experience as a ranch hand and that he didn’t mind privacy. At first, he didn’t
expect anything from it. The only reason he’d answered the ad was because it
might be a way out of the situation he was in right now. In fact, he forgot all
about it the moment he dropped his letter in the mailbox, and he went right
back to his normal routine.

A week later, he received a reply. When he came home from
work and his mom handed it to him and asked him what it was, he shrugged and
said, “Just a letter from a fella I knew at work. He moved away last year.”
Then, he put the letter in his back pocket, sat down in his usual seat at the
table and read it later that night when he went to bed.

Second Chance: The Complete Series

About Me

Ryan
@ryanfield
Hybrid author of over 100 published modern romance novels and stories, including AN OFFICER AND HIS GENTLEMAN, FANGSTERS, THE RAINBOW DETECTIVE AGENCY and best selling VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE SERIES. (The profile photo isn't very good, but it's really me and it's recent from 2017. I'm not supposed to be a photographer. )
RfieldJ@aol.com

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